Histories Written in the Margins: Early Modern Scientific Print Cultures and Practices in the Work of Christopher Borri

This event has passed.

Conrad A. Elvehjem Building, Room L160
@ 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

diagram image of intersecting circles around a sun with comets.
Modified screenshot of a digitized Vatican manuscript. “Compendio d’un Trattato del Pre’ Christoforo Borro Giesuita Della nuova Costitution del Mundo secondo Tichone Brahe e gli altri Astrologi moderni Tradotto di Latino in Persiano da Pietro Della Valle il Pellegrino Patritio Romano” (Rome, 1631). Drawing displays the geo-heliocentric cosmology of Tycho Brahe, including three comets in 1577, 1580, and 1618, from a tract written by Borri in 1624.

James Barnes

Coleman Fellow (2021-2022)

History, UW-Madison

“Histories Written in the Margins” is a brief introduction to the seventeenth-century Jesuit astronomer Christopher Borri and his various works, which are the basis of my dissertation. Among the first to teach and adopt the theories of Tycho Brahe, Borri was a critical figure in spreading novel astronomical theories and discoveries not only throughout Europe, but also to East Asia and the Arabic speaking world. My dissertation explores how Borri’s association with the Jesuits, his role instructing pilots in astronomical navigation at the “Aula da Esfera” in Portugal, and early modern print culture shaped his worldview and the practice of creating knowledge about the natural world. To ground this material, this talk will focus on Borri’s most influential text and one of its many translators, Robert Ashley.

James Barnes studies the social, intellectual and institutional history of science in the Middle Ages. His specific interests include scientific and technological innovation in medieval universities and craft guilds, and the interactions that took place between scientists and craftsmen. His other interests include the economic system of institutional support and patronage that supported medieval science, the manner in which that system was disrupted by the Reformations, and the relationship between science and religion in general. He holds an M.A. in History and an M.A. in the History of Science.